ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The top seed for next month's Empire 8 Conference Tournament will be at stake Saturday when Nazareth travels to Ithaca for a pivotal women's soccer match at 12 p.m.
Both teams improved to 7-0 in conference action with victories Wednesday. Nazareth (10-5 overall) won its fourth straight game (the last three by shutout) with a 3-0 triumph at RIT, while Ithaca blanked Hartwick, 7-0. The Bombers (11-2 overall and ranked seventh nationally) have won six straight and have outscored the opposition 22-1 during that stretch.
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"It's big in the sense that hosting the conference tournament is an advantage," said Nazareth Coach Gail Mann, whose team reached double figures in wins for the 16th time in the last 17 seasons with Wednesday's triumph. "This is a fun challenge for us."
Seeing Nazareth and Ithaca in this scenario is nothing new. Either the Golden Flyers or the Bombers have won every E8 championship since the league's formation in 1999. Ithaca has won the last three championships and gained the corresponding automatic NCAA berth each time.
Three of Nazareth's losses have come against nationally ranked teams: 1-0 to 10th-ranked William Smith; 4-0 to third-ranked Otterbein; and 2-1 to 24th-ranked Rochester.
"We're definitely playing better," Mann said. "I think we're a little deeper than we've been in the past, so I'd like to think that we don't lose much with our players who come in off the bench."
Ithaca has won the last six meetings with Nazareth, including a 2-0 triumph in last year's E8 title match. The Bombers have lost only to Babson, 1-0, in the second game of the season and to Cortland, 1-0, Sept. 25.
If Saturday's game ends in a tie, Nazareth holds the tiebreaker advantage, which comes down to goal differential in all conference matches (capped at +3). The Empire 8 Conference Tournament is Nov. 6-7 with the top seed hosting the two semifinal matches as well as the championship game.